The Many Faces of Europe

Two middle-aged women wearing hijabs chat to each other in Arabic as they walk down the street. Ahead of them is a Muslim bookstore, displaying DVDs by imams and books with titles like Scientific Miracles in the Koran. On one corner there's a halal butcher shop; around another, a music store that sells only Arab music. Someone has plastered posters advertising a concert by the Moroccan musician Daoudi. But this isn't Morocco. This is France. And we're not in the suburbs, where many of France's marginalized North African communities live. The Goutte d'Or quarter is right in the 18th arrondissement of...